Entries in #debate (1)
The Formalism of Debates
What is interesting us in conversation here at the farm is that rule-seekers are angry that Jim Lehrer didn't do more to intervene and keep the potential presidents on point and within time rules. We laugh when rules are thrown out; when things don't fit in the box.
Those same rule-seeker objectionists demand a search and destroy Powerhouse military beholden to no small tyrant. (As a musical audience, rule-seekers would demand that a musical act start on time, play the numbers as they are recorded on the album and not behave in an unexpected manner)
Lehrer is just a small tyrant significantly more powerfull in the old tv model than the rest of us small tyrants of art, tv, internet, or print. The fact that Jimbo had no real voice or capacity to control a head of state and head of corporations is indicative of the normal state in which most individuals exist.
...and then there are the political aspects dealt with elswhere on the internet [This is Hell]... and also, we can't all be tyrants right? some of us are good neighbors.
What is left but to enjoy when such rules are thrown out the window, like an old bedpan emptied vigorously on Jim Leher's head. In the cultural world, it is these moments of breakthroughs that are most memorable. The main point, inadvertently made on wednesday night, is that rules have power to the extent that the rulers care to follow them.
Your Person of the Part of No Part,
Aurthur Fournrussel